MUSICIANS’ CONCERTS ‘IN EXILE’

San Diego Symphony musicians will conduct a series of concerts in January and February. Even if the current impasse in contract negotiations is resolved this month, the earliest possible date for the musicians to perform in Symphony Hall under the symphony association’s aegis would be March 1.

Since the 1986-87 winter season was canceled, the musicians have played several ad hoc concerts on their own. Their winter mini-series will begin with a joint concert with the San Diego Master Chorale at 8 p.m. Jan. 24 at Civic Theatre. Guest conductor James De Priest, music director of Portland’s Oregon Symphony, will conduct Beethoven’s Ninth (“Choral”) Symphony as the program’s major work. Master Chorale conductor Frank Almond will conduct Haydn’s “Te Deum” and Verdi’s “Ave Maria.”

The musicians’ second concert will be Feb. 3 at the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon. The program will feature guest conductor Paul Polivnik, violin soloist Kathleen Linsky in the Dvorak Violin Concerto, and Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” and Wagner’s prelude to “Rienzi.”

UC San Diego music professor Jean-Charles Francois will conduct Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 at the East County center Feb. 12, a program he will repeat Feb. 15 at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium. Francois, known for his avant-garde percussion performances and compositions, chose this Haydn symphony, called the “Drum Roll,” as well as works by his fellow countrymen Berlioz, Ravel and Debussy.

The series’ final concert will be led by Thomas Nee, conductor of the La Jolla Civic-University Orchestra and member of the UCSD music faculty, Feb. 22 at the East County center. Nee’s program of all Viennese composers will include Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with pianist Edith Orloff and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with UCSD soprano soloist Carol Plantamura. The concert will be repeated the following evening at Mandeville Auditorium.

Except for the Civic Theatre performance with the Master Chorale, all concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m.